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Canberra faces black ice risk with early frost

Fleta Page and Henry Belot

Cold weather brings snow to the Brindabella mountains, as seen from Gordon. Photo: Melissa Adams

There could be black ice on Canberra roads on Monday morning, with wintry conditions for another day before a cool but fine week.

During the cold and rainy weekend, 8.6 millimetres of rain fell at the airport and, while the lowest temperature recorded was 4.3 degrees, the apparent temperature stayed below freezing from 11am on Saturday morning until a slight reprieve for a few hours from 2pm on Sunday afternoon.

The Bureau of Meteorology cancelled a damaging wind warning that was in place for the ACT, but the 25km/h to 30km/h winds on Monday are still likely to have it continue to feel colder than it is.

"We're going for a maximum of 10 [on Monday] but it will feel a fair bit colder than that," the BOM duty forecaster said. "There'll be some early frost, a minimum of about zero … but it is the sort of day where there could be some black ice around – particularly [in the] higher suburbs.

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"It's a bit dependent on how the cloud clears and what temperature we get down to in the early morning, but the ice will be a risk."

The forecaster said a warning to drivers would be issued officially overnight on Sunday if that risk of ice turned out to be severe.

After Monday, winds are expected to lighten, keeping apparent temperatures closer to the actual air temperature.

"There's a high-pressure system to move in over NSW, so essentially fine conditions," the forecaster said. "Cool days and chilly nights though.

"There'll be some morning frost and fog patches and probably mostly sunny days and relatively light winds to come."

Temperatures are expected to reach a maximum of 12 to 13 degrees for the remainder of the week, with lows between zero and minus 2 degrees.

Weatherzone meteorologist Brett Dutschke said on Monday there was a risk of ice on the roads for the next few mornings, although the air will become drier meaning less moisture for ice to form on the roads.

“Even though the air is drying out a bit, when there are cars driving on the road with temperatures at their lowest you can get a bit of moisture coming from the exhaust which can freeze on the roads,” he said.

“The risk [of ice on the roads] is still there for the next couple of days.”

Mr Dutschke said temperatures fell to 1.4 degrees in Canberra on Sunday night with temperatures in Tuggeranong falling to just below freezing at 0.3 degrees at 6am Monday.

“The feels like temperature in Canberra got as low as -2.3 degrees and in Tuggeranong it was pretty similar at -1.5 degrees,” he said.